Tokyo Olympics: Georgia Taylor-Brown the latest off the Leeds Triathlon Centre, Brownlee legacy production line

Great Britain have now won seven medals in triathlon over the last three Olympic Games, and each of those successes was made in Leeds. Nick Westby reports.
Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown celebrates with her silver medal after the Women's Triathlon at the Odaiba Marine Park (Picture: PA)Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown celebrates with her silver medal after the Women's Triathlon at the Odaiba Marine Park (Picture: PA)
Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown celebrates with her silver medal after the Women's Triathlon at the Odaiba Marine Park (Picture: PA)

It may not be the Brownlees any more – save for one last hurrah from Jonny in the mixed team event this coming Saturday – but the city of Leeds is still producing Olympic medallists in triathlon.

Alex Yee, who won silver in the men’s race on Monday, trained at the Leeds Triathlon Centre while a student at Leeds Beckett University, before relocating to his native London.

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Georgia Taylor-Brown, who matched Yee’s silver with a courageous performance in typhoon conditions in Tokyo yesterday morning, has made Leeds her home since moving to the city from Manchester as an 18-year-old.

Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown exits the water during the Women's Triathlon (Picture: PA)Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown exits the water during the Women's Triathlon (Picture: PA)
Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown exits the water during the Women's Triathlon (Picture: PA)

Now 27, she came to study and progress her sporting development at the Leeds Triathlon Centre, the house the Brownlees built through their feats on the world stage and at the London and Rio Olympics.

Taylor-Brown is now an Olympic medallist, despite having to run back into contention after pucnturing a tyre towards the end of the 40km cycling leg.

The courage to overcome such adversity caught the imagination of the public, but did not surprise the people at Leeds Triathlon Centre who know her so well, people like her running coach Ian Mitchell

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“Georgia came as an 18-year-old to Leeds, she always had the potential, she had the X-factor about her even then,” says Mitchell, also from Leeds and himself a runner.

Brownlee Centre, Leeds.. Jonny Brownlee (Picture: Simon Hulme)Brownlee Centre, Leeds.. Jonny Brownlee (Picture: Simon Hulme)
Brownlee Centre, Leeds.. Jonny Brownlee (Picture: Simon Hulme)

“She was a star as a junior. She’s always been focused, really determined.

“Yesterday the puncture was just another thing to overcome. Even going round corners with a flat tyre in those wet conditions is so hard.

“To do that and keep ahead – just shows she doesn’t get flustered, she controls the things that she can control.

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“Mentally she’s so good at that. She kept a cool head, and then she was off on the run.”

Leeds Triathlon Centre alumnus: Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown (right) is congratulated by Great Britain's Jessica Learmonth (Picture: PA)Leeds Triathlon Centre alumnus: Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown (right) is congratulated by Great Britain's Jessica Learmonth (Picture: PA)
Leeds Triathlon Centre alumnus: Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown (right) is congratulated by Great Britain's Jessica Learmonth (Picture: PA)

She also had to overcome a stress injury to her femur that wiped out six of the final 12 weeks of preparation for Tokyo.

“I wanted to keep it private,” saiid Taylor-Brown after finishing second to Flora Duffy of Bermuda.

“You don’t want to show your competitors your weaknesses, but I’ve had six weeks of building my running back again.”

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For Mitchell, she and all the triathletes at the Leeds centre are a dream to work with.

“Georgia is naturally talented,” he tells The Yorkshire Post. “It’s in the genes – her mum and dad were incredible athletes – but she works so, so hard on top of that.

“It’s good to work with those types of athletes. She’s got a good mental approach and she thrives off the big day.”

This is the third straight Olympic Games in which Leeds has produced a triathlon medallist, following the two golds of Alistair Brownlee, silver and bronze for Jonny and a bronze for Vicky Holland in 2016.

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Not bad for a group that was set up by then coach Malcolm Brown in the mid-to-late noughties.

“Malcolm set it up out of small cafes,” continues Mitchell, who was one of the coaches to succeed Brown in 2017.

“And the legacy now of the Brownlees is that we’ve had the fantastic building built. Triathlon is a sport where you’re training 20, 30 hours a week so to have key training partners around you is essential.

“Not everyone is going to be an Olympian, not every one is going to be elite.

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“There’s going to be a lot of student athletes and development athletes coming into our centre that Georgia would run with, or could help her out with on those sessions.

“The key here is there’s a lot of camaraderie between them.

“This year we’ve had people running with Georgia who might not do the full session but they’re with her warming up, socialising. It’s a way of life.

“Leeds has become a mecca since the Brownlees paved the way. We’ve had umpteen world junior medallists, Vicky and Non Stanford were here in 2016 when Vicky medalled in Rio.

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“People come here and see what the Brownlees have done and they think anything is possible. That’s how it’s developed.”

The injury even had a silver lining as it meant Taylor-Brown did more swim training, and getting in the front group of seven going on to the bike leg proved crucial after the race finally began 15 minutes late because of wet and windy conditions caused by tropical storm Nepartak.

That group had been whittled down to five when, late on the final lap of the 40 kilometres and with the weather finally relenting, Taylor-Brown heard a hissing from her tyre.

She lost 22 seconds before setting out on the 10km run and quickly overtook team-mate Jess Learmonth, whose ferocious pace on the swim split the field, and Germany’s Laura Lindemann before passing Katie Zaferes of the United States heading into the final lap.

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Gold was well out of reach in the form of the phenomenal Duffy, who became Bermuda’s first Olympic champion, but Taylor-Brown was thrilled with silver. “I didn’t want to push it too soon (on the run) because I was really suffering but I really wanted to move up and get the silver medal.”

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